Applications Invited for Swavalamban Challenge Fund 2021

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About the Organization:

Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) was established under an act of Indian Parliament. They are the principal financial institution for the promotion, financing and development of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) sector as well as for co-ordination of functions of institutions engaged in similar activities.

Swavalamban Challenge Fund

SCF aims to support inclusive, innovative and impactful proposals from eligible entities on the selected themes. The main objective of SCF is to provide financial support to nonprofit organizations / educational institutions/ social startups which have focus on sustainable livelihood, financial inclusion, and access to financial services and promoting the culture of entrepreneurship. SCF is also open to projects that innovate, create jobs, leverage investments and markets so as to promote resilience and sustainable incomes, in these testing times.

Target Segments:

SCF targets to attract Development organizations working in the domain of:

• Livelihoods
• Women empowerment
• Youth
• PwD
• Migrant Workers
• Marginalized
• Bottom of Pyramid

SCF Themes:

SCF invites proposals on below mentioned themes:

• Financial literacy and Inclusion (Universal use and access of Financial Services: Behavioral Change, Village Adoption, etc.)
• Livelihoods
• Empowerment – Enterprise Promotion
• Responsible Business– Environment and social governance practices for enterprises, Green practice: Promote and support eco-friendly practices in rural India, waste – reduce, recycling/reuse,
• Health & Sanitation (Health and hygiene: Jobs generation through service aggregator & accelerator)
• Innovative Enterprise Solutions – Map the pain points and solutions aligned to local/regional issues. It should have inherent traits of replicability/scalability

Digitization, sustainability and maximizing convergence with local/state or central government programme shall be an encompassing theme which shall be accorded preference during assessment. Credit Connect and enterprise setting up shall be preferred. Community participation and impact shall be accorded priority.

Eligible Projects/Ideas:

SCF expects impact oriented projects/ideas which addresses the problems of the bottom of the pyramid targeting unprivileged/underprivileged as beneficiaries. The projects/ideas must be within the six focus areas (as enumerated in section IV A. Themes) and directly or indirectly aligned with the objective of SCF and SIDBI. They advise applicants to prepare an implementable proposal which may contain project plans/strategies, activities, budget, impact with timeline and provide high-level research & knowledge inputs.

Eligible Entities:

Applicants must be:

• Registered society, foundation/section 8/25 companies, trust, development organization, development Agencies who have been in existence with more than 2 years with experience in development sector in India having complied with all the statutory guidelines pertaining to organizational regulations and operations in India. OR
• Professor with group of students representing educational institutions or in collaboration with NGO/foundation. OR
• Startups active in social fields shall be considered on merit basis.

Have audited its account and finance for at least last 2 FYs (if audited financials for FY 2021 is not available, audited financials for FY 2019 and FY 2020 may suffice). In case of educational institutions/startups/MSMEs, the condition can be waived.

Application Category:

An applicant may apply either in Pilot or Scaling-up category as per criteria below:

• Pilot Category: Under this category, applicants can apply with their proposal to pilot/test/trial their innovative ideas which have potential to impact lives positively.
• Scale Up Category: Under this category, already ongoing/completed projects done by the applicants will be considered for scaling up after thorough check.

It should be noted that one applicant can apply only for either Pilot or Scale-up category during an on-going window.

Awards: There can be one or more winners who shall be awarded on each theme and each category. 5-7 proposals shall be picked during a window opening, however the number may be increased at the discretion of SIDBI.

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